Blogging about life, culture, the economy and politics, i.e., stuff, since December 2012

Sunday, January 13, 2013

If This Then That, If That Then This

A good marriage, a good partnership, a
good relationship – the backbone of each is to believe in and support your
opposite number, even when they have a point of view or take an action that you
might not have individually subscribed to.I think it is fair to say virtually all of us are more distantly
connected to politicians than to our spouses, or to our close business associates
and personal friends.Yet one of the
favorite attack modes -- launched frequently by moral relativists on the left
-- is to say if you support Politician X then you must support/oppose something
else that Politician X supports or opposes.Otherwise you are a liar or a hypocrite.I for one put most politicians up there with death and taxes, inevitable
but not pleasant.I no more support or
oppose every position of a particular politician than I support or oppose every
tax.And while I accept the
inevitability of death and understand its role in renewal and how it fits
within the vision of our Creator, I can’t say I’m a avid supporter. The world just isn’t that binary.

A most
recent instance of position by association involves support for an assault
weapons ban.I believe, hands down, that Ronald Reagan
was the best President in my lifetime.Reagan was an expert practitioner in the art of projecting power to
secure peace, which enable the negotiation of face-to-face resolutions with adversaries.He totally got the power of markets and
competition to build prosperity and understood the roles of liberty and freedom
in promoting and protecting the same.And he connected with people on a highly personal and individual
level.On a practical level, Reagan implemented reforms
that dramatically improved the government’s long-run fiscal stability (e.g., increasing
social security funding and narrowing eligibility for social security benefits
to target core beneficiaries, reducing federal pensions by more than one-half, and
reducing the frequency of COLA adjustments). We have been told in recent days that
Ronald Reagan supported an assault weapon ban; if you believe in Ronald Reagan
you should also believe in eliminating assault weapons.Let’s examine this call for orthodoxy.

In the first place, let us look at Reagan’s May 4, 1994 letter to the House of Representatives signed also by
fellow former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford.That
letter states,

“We are writing to urge your support for a ban on the domestic manufacture
of military-style assault weapons. This is a matter of vital importance to the
public safety. Although assault weapons account for less than 1% of the guns in
circulation, they account for nearly 10% of the guns traced to crime.”

I say props
to the boys for supplying empirical support for their position.Their advocacy succeeded – a decade-long assault
weapon ban went into effect, the inference from the then available empirical data
being the ban would prevent or reduce gun violence.In terms of what actually happened after the ban was enacted, the
evidence is murky, at best. Daniel J.
Woods, and Jeffrey A. Roth of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University
of Pennsylvania found no statistically significant evidence that either the assault weapons ban or the ban on magazines holding
more than 10 rounds had reduced gun murders.A 2004 critical review of researchon firearms by a National Research
Council panel noted that academic studies of the assault weapon ban
"did not reveal any clear impacts on gun violence."If Ronald Reagan were alive today, who says with
new evidence that he would continue to support the ban?It’s an unknown.

More importantly, did Ronald Reagan, the
Ronald Reagan we knew and loved, actually support the ban?I doubt it.Look at the timing.Ronald Reagan signed two letters of import in
1994, the first referenced above, was typewritten, presumably drafted by some
intermediary and signed jointly. The second letter was composed from Reagan’s
heart and was drafted in cursive handwriting, informing the country he had contracted
Alzheimer’s disease and was withdrawing from public life.The
New York Times reported that evidence of Ronald Reagan's Alzheimer’s
disease emerged in 1992 and 1993, and became impossible to hide in early 1994.

“The Alzheimer's almost
became evident in an embarrassing way in February 1994 when Mr. Reagan spoke to
2,500 people celebrating his 83d birthday in Washington. It is thought to have been his last public speech and last
visit to the capital.”

Twilight was
well underway.

I’ll add my speculation. Something like this played out.Nancy Reagan approached Ronny (as she called
him) with the draft letter, endorsed by his predecessors, and said they would
like you to sign this.And Jim and
Sarah Brady (his wounded and disabled former press secretary and wife, strong
gun control advocates) have asked for the favor of your signature.Ronald Reagan kindly obliged – a simple
personal favor, not a lasting statement of Constitutional principle. That action
makes me simpatico with Reagan.I believe in the beauty and humanity of simple personal favors.

About Me

I had things I wanted to say and became tired of trying to force fit views by commenting on other people's blogs, so I started this enterprise.
Your comments are welcome. If they are relevant, and when negative, stick to sticking it to only to public figures and don't defame or invade anyone's privacy. I'll publish them.
Extended stories about life and family history are especially fun to write. We have the great fortune to have had many relatives who had prominent civic, professional, and/or political lives, which yields many thousands of references memorialized in press clippings and otherwise. I have received plenty of help from relatives who choose to remain unnamed. Those stories garner high readership. They are tagged with "Bathgate."
I would say my politics are libertarian leaning. I seldom vote for Democrats, and usually don't vote for Republicans -- I have been known to get writer's cramp in the voting booth.
Please do read and enjoy.